 |
| | 1ST CL. PVT. ALFRED J. BAKER
Serial No. 2,986,122
88 London Road, Stony Stratford, Buckinghamshire, Eng.
Private Baker was a member of the 310th Ammunition Train assigned to duty with Battery B in September, 1918.
Baker was an Englishman with the characteristics of the Britisher and possessed of that sportsmanship for which they are noted.
Being acquainted with horses, he was immediately selected as a driver. When pulling the guns from the Girard Woods to the Tautecourt position the shell fire was so incessant that the horses began to be unmanageable. Everyone had the privilege of looking after his own safety and the command was relaxed. Privates Heenan, Kean, Hollingshead, Medland, Olivier, Krauss and Baker, on their own initiative, with other drivers, handled the situation with heroic intelligence.
While on ration and ammunition detail under Lieut. Dunbar at Thiacourt, the shelling of their area became so heavy that the men with their horses had to adjust gas masks on themselves and the horses and seek what available shelter they could.
On Thanksgiving Day, on the newly-created regimental athletic field, Battery B’s soccer team was ordered to play against Battery C’s. This was an exciting game, in which Battery B won the game. In that game Baker was one of the stars.
He was of medium height, with bright, buoyant spirits, agile of body, as well as quick of thought.
He had the privilege of going on leave to see his people in England, but preferred to return to America with our outfit. He was one of two thoroughly Americanized Englishmen in the Battery |